State Moves To Save Seminole Site Governor, Cabinet Approve Plan To Use Archaeological Fund To Buy Miramar Property

March 4, 1992|By BOB FRENCH, Staff Writer

MIRAMAR -- Florida`s emergency archaeological fund will be used in a bid to save what archaeologists say is the first recorded Seminole Indian settlement in South Florida.

Gov. Lawton Chiles and the Cabinet on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to allow the Division of State Lands to use the $2 million fund to preserve Snake Warrior`s Island, an archaeological site on the former Perry Dairy property in southern Miramar.

``We`re on track to do it as quickly as possible,`` said Daniel Fuchs, assistant director for Cabinet affairs.

The purchase will be the first use of the Emergency Archaeological Acquisition Fund, which was created in 1988 to preserve sites that were in imminent danger of development.

``There is a sense of urgency,`` Fuchs said. ``It`s a very valuable tract, and the Division of State Lands wants to see it preserved.``

Archaeologists and historians say the 53-acre dairy was the site of Snake Warrior`s Island, an island in what was then part of the Everglades, settled by up to 100 Seminoles in the early 1800s. Recent excavations of the site have unearthed Seminole pottery fragments, glassware, tools and weapons.

Seminole Indians moved to the island from north and central Florida during the 1820s and 1830s to escape federal troops that were trying to force the tribe to go to Oklahoma.

The Trust for Public Lands, a California-based organization, has an option to buy 30 acres of the dairy that was Snake Warrior`s Island. The trust has asked the state to spend about $2 million to buy the property when the option expires on March 31.

The governor and Cabinet on Tuesday agreed to waive a state requirement for two independent appraisals of the property and said the state division could have an appraisal done by the Broward County government.

If an agreement is reached by the state and the property`s owners, the purchase would have to be approved by the governor and Cabinet.

The property would eventually be turned into a park if bought by the state, said archaeologist Bob Carr.

``There would be an interpretive center where people can learn about the early Seminole history in Broward County,`` he said.